


Life Gets Better

by CheetahLeopard2



Series: Your favs have Psychosis [5]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Friendship, Getting Together, Mental Breakdown, Multi, Psychosis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-01
Updated: 2018-08-01
Packaged: 2019-06-20 01:07:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15522711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CheetahLeopard2/pseuds/CheetahLeopard2
Summary: Life does get better





	Life Gets Better

**Author's Note:**

  * For [8The_Great_Perhaps8](https://archiveofourown.org/users/8The_Great_Perhaps8/gifts), [surveycorpsjean](https://archiveofourown.org/users/surveycorpsjean/gifts), [cherrykirsch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherrykirsch/gifts), [CalicoPudding](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CalicoPudding/gifts), [putyournamehere](https://archiveofourown.org/users/putyournamehere/gifts), [meowkittykenma (azumarheart)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/azumarheart/gifts).



> Hi I support you
> 
> I TOLD YOU I HAD HAPPIER GIFTS ON THE WAY

Satori is no stranger to being branded as ‘weird’ or ‘the odd one out’ or a ‘freak’.

He doesn’t mind it, for the most part. At least he’s not boring. 

So what if no one wants to hang out with him? So what if he has no friends? At least he’s not boring.

That’s what he tells himself throughout elementary school.

 

Then comes junior high.

In junior high, kids are meaner, more observant. No longer can he get away with having his eyes focused on things no one else can see, getting distracted by sounds no one else can hear. The thing Satori allows himself is using his scary observational skills. Sometimes Satori thinks he’s psychic, and other times he beats back any thought of being different. 

Then he joins the volleyball team. 

His mom had been pushing for him to do an extracurricular for a while now, and Satori, no matter how much he denied it, yearned for the comradery of a team. 

At first volleyball was just fun, something to do. 

And then Satori was put in the position of middle blocker. 

He’s perfect for it, catching every little hint possible of the other team, figuring out where the ball was going sometimes even before the other team was sure.

He’s found his calling. A place where his differences are useful.

Satori excels rapidly.

At first, he doesn’t realize that people don’t want to be on his team for the mini tournaments they have for practice.

It quickly becomes obvious though, and it doesn’t take long into first year for people to start talking about him.

“That’s Tendou. He’s weird,” becomes a common thing for Tendou to hear when they go to tournaments, or even just when people see him in the hall.

It’s not great when during the summer between his first and second year of junior high he goes with his mom to a psychiatrist a few times and he’s officially diagnosed with and begins medication for psychosis. 

_ They’re not right. _ Satori tells himself. Although- he knows they are. Semantically, at least. Where they’re wrong is the connotations of the words they’re using. 

‘Weird’ just means not normal, and there’s nothing wrong with not being normal. 

And then one day everything takes a turn for the worst. 

He hears the classroom phone going off in the middle of class, and no one reacts. He usually ignores these sounds, it’s just a phone. A blinking classroom phone that the teacher is ignoring.

It’s the middle of a test and Satori can’t concentrate.

He raises his hand before he can think better of it, and when the teacher takes notice of him, Satori asks barely loud enough for the person in the desk in front of him if the teacher is going to pick up the phone.

The teacher fixes him with an odd look and says, gently, in a puzzled tone, “The phone isn’t ringing, Tendou-kun.”

“Oh,” his voice is soft and tired, especially for a 14 year old, and a piece of his reality has been chipped away.

It’s small, such an innocuous thing, but it spreads like wildfire anyways.

After school he’s confronted by a group of boys.

All he remembers is a kick prefaced by “You’re a crazy,” kick, “useless,” kick, “Monster.”

It becomes a part of his normal.

The worst part is that they’re right. He  _ is  _ crazy. 

And he can’t find it in himself to discover positive connotations to accept himself. 

He goes home and breaks down enough to forget his name and where he is and comes back down reset. 

He throws himself into volleyball, into the only place where he can be himself. Creepy accurate and a bit disjointed. 

It does him no favors as far as his peers go, but it gives him an escape.

The bullying gets progressively worse, and Satori turns to the internet for friends, blogging about the latest manga he’s reading and occasionally about his mental health and school issues under the user “GM”, for Guess Monster. 

It’s the best he can do to reclaim it.

One day midway through his second year, he opens his computer to a message. It reads, simply, ‘How do you deal with it?’

Taking a guess, as Satori is so good at doing, he responds, ‘The first step to dealing with it is accepting it! Then you have to be yourself in any way you can so that it doesn’t build up too much” 

The person responds within minutes, and soon Satori finds that he has his first friend. 

He and the other person, who goes by MI and is in Satori’s grade, message constantly, and MI joins his school’s volleyball team after Satori goes on about it and how it’s “His paradise.”

Second year ends better than first, with a friend and a starting spot all but guaranteed for the next year. 

Second year itself goes by in a flash, with Satori confessing to MI that he’s pan and MI responding that he thinks he’s bi. There are no romantic feelings between them, but they have a deep bond. It’s… nice.

Satori manages to impress the scouts at his last junior high tournament and gets invited to Shiratorizawa. 

The rest, well, it’s basically history.

 

He makes friends in his team, improves like crazy as a blocker, and talks regularly with MI.

They get to nationals in the inter high, barely lose to Seijoh in the spring high. Along the way he learns to trust in his friendship with Eita and Wakatoshi.

While Reon and Hayato have been friendly towards him, Satori feels slightly closer to Eita and Wakatoshi. In the crush kind of way. 

Satori mostly ignores his feelings. Eita and Wakatoshi have each other, they’ve had each other since their last year of junior high. They know more about each other thank any of the rest of the team.

Which is why it’s surprising to Satori when he gets good enough at reading Wakatoshi that Eita starts turning to him when Wakatoshi says something especially cryptic, or when he gets good enough at distracting Eita that Wakatoshi turns to him when he’s in a strong mood.

It doesn’t hurt that Eita is his roommate, and that Wakatoshi’s roommate ended up going to a different school so he can stay in their room whenever without the worry of being sold out.

It’s during one of those evenings, when they’re crowded in Satori and Eita’s room after classes and dinner to study, read, and do homework, that Eita checks his phone and groans from next to Satori on his bed, turning to lay down dramatically with his head in Satori’s lap.

Satori raises an eyebrow and sets his manga to the side to look down at Eita, weaving one of his hands through Eita’s hair, as Wakatoshi looks up from the middle of his homework spread on the floor, “My, my Semisemi, that was dramatic.”

Eita groans again, pressing his hands to his face, “My mom keeps asking me when I’m gonna bring a boyfriend home. I’m a first year in high school for fuck’s sake, can’t she calm down.”

Satori makes a sympathetic noise, “Don’t worry Eita, you can take your time with meeting cute boys.”

Eita freezes, “Shit,” he says with feeling, hands still over his face, “I just came out to you, didn’t I?”

“It’s okay Semisemi, I’m pan,” Satori purposefully keeps his tone light, looking to Wakatoshi for an anchor.

“I am reasonably sure I am gay,” Wakatoshi says, then pauses, considering , “I am gay.” He then nods, as if to reaffirm to himself that that is a fact.

It’s ridiculously cute to Satori, and he turns his attention back to the initial topic, “Seriously though Semisemi, take your time meeting people! I didn’t even have a real friend until my second-to-last year of junior high,” he says in his most reassuring tone.

“Wait, what?” Eita sits up quickly, turning on the bed so that Satori has no choice but to look down into his eyes.

“What?” 

“Tendou, how many friends do you have?” Eita sounds frustrated, for whatever reason, and before Tendou can answer he adds, “ _ Outside _ of volleyball.”

Satori hesitates, “Does it count if I got him into volleyball?”

Wakatoshi and Eita share a considering glance, and Eita begrudgingly says, “That counts as an outside friend, I guess.” 

“One?” Satori phrases it as a question, instead of a sure answer, unsure of what Eita and Wakatoshi are looking for.

“Satori that’s not normal.”

Satori can’t hold in a flinch at the wording combined with Eita’s frustrated tone, and Eita’s eyes flash with alarm, putting together the mutters of opposing teams at games of ‘freak’. 

“That’s not what I-,” Eita takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, turning to Wakatoshi for help.

“It is odd that someone as outgoing and enjoyable a yourself would not have many friends,” Wakatoshi explains, his gaze meeting, unwavering, with Satori’s hesitant one.

“It’s-” Satori doesn’t know how to explain without outing his mental illness, and he gulps, “It’s fine, I have you guys now!”

Eita leans forwards, into his personal space, “You do,” he mutters, before closing the gap.

Satori lets his eyes slide shut, becoming hyper-aware of Eita’s chapped lips against his, the way Wakatoshi’s hand has come to rest on his knee. When Eita moves, Satori opens his eyes to Wakatoshi asking, “May I kiss you Satori?” 

Satori shakily nods his consent, and again lips are on his own. This time Satori has his hands in Wakatoshi’s and Eita’s and when Eita pulls Wakatoshi towards him his reality falls into place.

He excitedly texts MI the next morning, and MI confesses his crushes on his fellow first years.

They spend a bit texting about why they might love multiple people and what the chances of it are, before MI says something maybe an hour into deep conversation that sticks with Satori. ‘Maybe it’s because we’re easily overwhelmed and this helps take pressure off, and stops us from obsessing.’

It’s nice.

Some days Satori gets scared, and has the urge to leave them, and not do his homework, and generally let his reality fall to ashes. 

Some days MI feels that way, particularly after he gets with his crushes in second year.

They’re there to talk each other down, to convince each other to talk to their respective SOs. 

Eventually second and third year slide by, and, earlier than Satori was ready for, the ball drops for the last time.

Volleyball has been his escape for his whole life. Volleyball is how he got into Shiratorizawa. Volleyball is how he met his partners. 

He looks up at the ceiling, a feeling of rue-tinged resignment settling into him, “Goodbye, my Paradise.”

College is soon after, and after he excitedly texts with MI about getting into the same university, they decide to room together. 

They’ve never met face-to-face, but they feel that they know enough about each other personality-wise to get along.

 

Satori has a good feeling about this. He had let MI be the one to find the apartment (Although Satori reviewed it and approved it) and apparently MI is already there with his boyfriends, unpacking his stuff.

Eita and Wakatoshi, both already moved into their dorms at Toho and Chuo, respectively, have elected to help.

When Satori steps out of the car to see a blue minivan parked next to his with the back open, he assumes that MI and his partners are all upstairs, and that one of them would be coming down soon. In the meantime, Wakatoshi and Eita clamber out of the car behind hm, and go to grab boxes.

Wakatoshi is the first to enter the apartment, and the moment he pokes his head into the open door, there’s an offended screech.

A  _ familiar _ offended screech. 

Wakatoshi blinks and steps aside, allowing Satori to slide in past him and Eita to trail behind. 

They’re greeted by the Seijoh 4, all in various states of shock.

“Please tell me Ushiwaka’s not GM,” Tooru says, voice faint.

Wakatoshi shakes his head, “Which one of you is MI?”

Seijou’s former middle blocker waves from the far bedroom, “That’d be me. Who’s GM?”

Eita elbows Satori out of his reverie, “Me.”

The middle blocker- Matsukawa Issei- gestures to the other bedroom, quickly getting over his surprise, “That one’s yours.”

Moving goes well, with surprisingly little fighting and mostly silence, and it’s only when they’ve finished and are sitting in the main area with pizza does the question finally pop up, “How in the fuck did you two meet?” 

Surprisingly, it’s not Eita who snaps, or even Tooru, it’s Takahiro.

“Online,” Satori stalls, taking another slice of bbq chicken pizza.

Eita scoffs, “We know that. Why?”

Satori and Issei exchange a look before they set their pizza down.

“We both have things in common,” Issei tiptoes around, and Hajime speaks up.

“Does this have anything to do with how you both have a bottle of the same medication in the bathroom?”

Issei bursts out coughing, while Satori tries to make himself small in the corner of he couch, “Yeah.”

“What’s the medication?” Eita asks, and everyone turns to him. “What?” he asks after a moment, scowling, “I’ve been memorizing medications just in case.”

“Abilify,” Hajime answers, leaning forwards in curiosity.

Eita freezes, then grabs the pillow from behind him and smacks Satori with it, “What the fuck, Satori! Why didn’t you tell us you had depression or psychosis or whatever!”

Issei is the one to answer, “Because psychosis is hard to deal with, sometimes.”

Tooru makes an indignant sound, “Then rely on us, sometimes! We love you and care about you!”

“I agree. If you had told us we could have supported you better,” Wakatoshi’s earnest voice catches Satori, and he and Issei exchange looks of happiness.

Life gets better.

**Author's Note:**

> PLEASE COMMENT!!


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